ThinkKit Catch-Up: Part III

#ThinkKit is a daily blogging challenge for the month of December hosted by Indy-based marketing firm SmallBox. To learn more about the challenge, do it yourself, or read other participants’ posts, follow along with @thinkkit or visit their webpage.

The crazy train is slowing down and I finally have some time to sit down and happily write away at some prompts.

7) What do you want your life (or your kitchen, your job, your ____ ) to look like? Create your own inspiration board. Sketch it, collage it or do it your own way.

There were so many directions I could go with this, but I finally settled on this picture of a desk set-up from Pottery Barn I stumbled on months ago:

My life is messy (I know, I know, whose isn’t?). My desk is cluttered. My inventory is everywhere. My life is shoved into a tiny bedroom I was never supposed to live in post 2011, with more stuff packed into boxes randomly stored in nooks and crannies throughout the garage and my parents’ business. This picture represents a lot–SPACE, storage, a place for everything, organization in the chaos, a place that’s light and airy and creative. A place to create. A place to do all of the things I’m trying to do, though not super well. A place for me.

8) What did you make this year? Whether something personal, like a song or some art, or a work project, share your process, the end result about your creation.

I’ve been flattered to get to handle a lot of custom orders this year and experiment with all kinds of new products.

I JUST made this mug for my friend’s dad as a Christmas gift and I’m pretty proud of how well my shoe drawing came out:

9) What completely surprised you this year? Was it good…or not so good? Tell us a story!

Hmmm….that’s a good question! I don’t have a particular story off the top of my head, but I think mostly this year I was surprised to learn people think that I completely have things together, that everything is peachy. There were a few people I met this year that seemed almost intimidated by what I’ve done, but to me it never feels that big. And behind closed doors, really, things are messy. I can’t say that enough.

10) What habits did you start this year that you want to continue? What inspired you to get in a new groove? Will you continue into 2014?

I can’t say I’ve picked up any superb habits. I’m still fighting terrible ones, like not drinking enough water and being awful at responding to emails. There were moments of new groove that were inspired largely by other people, challenges, groups. So perhaps most of all I need to embrace people in 2014. It’s easy for me to go into a cave for periods of time. This is embarrassing, but I once didn’t leave my house for almost a week, but I didn’t even realize it until the end of the week. I had a period where I realized I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw a friend. It’s not that they live next door and I’m not talking to them, most of my friends are a solid 30+ minutes away, with my best friends being hours away. But still. It was almost a month. And that is pretty silly.

11) Draw a pie chart, graph, or Venn diagram of your year. What you measure, count, collect, or combine is up to you!

Last year I created this:

Yep. Pretty much still true.

12) Try something totally different. Take a new route to work. Make up a new recipe. Shake up your routine. What did you come up with?

I’m not even sure of what I did on the 12th. Today I printed a mug featuring a drawing I did in my snazzy Prismacolor makers for the first time. Does that count?

13) When did you laugh out loud? Share a funny or humorous story from this year.

Oh my…I laugh out loud a lot, especially when I’m with Ellen, my friend who brings out a lot of the ridiculousness, craziness, and inappropriateness in me. On my last trip to Louisville to see her we drank and laughed about old jokes and classic times at DePauw and the number of men on Bardstown Rd. in Louisville who have beards. Seriously. It’s a lot. She also made me do a photo booth thing with her in which we both looked like a reincarnation of Elton John in the 70s, complete with pink glasses and feathers. That picture is not coming out for this. Sorry.

14. Did you get any good advice or learn a valuable lesson this year? Was it expected or unexpected, easy or tough? Share what you learned.

I think one of the best things I learned this summer was that your personal values are the core of your life. If you aren’t feeling great, if you’re feeling off, look to those values. Are they being fulfilled? Most of the time they aren’t. I’ve asked myself this question a lot this year, as well as questioned how I could fix the situation.